Do More by Focusing on Systems, Not Goals
We all have things that we want to achieve in our life – to get better, build a successful business, create a wonderful family, write a best-selling book, win a championship, and so on.
This post was originally published on JamesClear.com .
And for most of us, the path to that begins with setting a concrete and actionable goal. At least that’s how I approached my life until recently. I set goals for the classes I attended, the weight I would like to lift in the gym, and the clients I wanted in my business.
However, I’m beginning to realize that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in areas that matter to you, there is a much better way to get things done.
It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.
Let me explain.
Difference between goals and systems
What is the difference between goals and systems?
- If you are a coach, your goal is to win the championship. Your system is what your team does every day.
- If you are a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
- If you are a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
- If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.
Now for a really interesting question:
If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?
For example, if you were a basketball coach and ignored your goal of winning the championship and focused only on what your team does in training every day, would you still achieve results?
I think you would.
As an example, I just counted the total number of words in articles written this year. (You can see them all here .) I have written over 115,000 words in the last 12 months. A typical book contains 50,000 to 60,000 words, so I’ve written enough to fill two books this year.
This is all such a surprise because I never set goals for myself. I have not measured my progress against any benchmark. I have never set word count goals for any particular article. I never said, “I want to write two books this year.”
I focused on writing one article every Monday and Thursday. And after sticking to that schedule for 11 months, the result was 115,000 words. I focused on my system and the process of getting the job done. In the end, I got the same (and maybe better) results.
Let’s talk about three more reasons why you should focus on systems over goals.
1. Goals decrease your current happiness.
When you work towards a goal, you are essentially saying, “I am not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.”
The problem with this mindset is that you are teaching yourself to always postpone happiness and success until the next milestone is reached. “Once I reach my goal, I will be happy. Once I reach my goal, I will be successful. “
Solution: Commit yourself to the process, not the goal.
Choosing a goal places a huge burden on your shoulders. Can you imagine if I set myself the goal of writing two books this year? Just writing this sentence tires me.
But we do it to ourselves all the time. We put unnecessary stress on ourselves in order to lose weight, succeed in business, or write a best-selling novel. Instead, you can simplify the task and reduce stress by focusing on your daily routine and sticking to your schedule instead of worrying about big, life-changing goals.
When you focus on practice rather than execution, you can enjoy the present moment and cultivate at the same time.
2. Goals are oddly at odds with long-term progress
You may think that your goal will keep you motivated in the long run, but this is not always the case.
Imagine someone training for a half marathon. Many people will work hard for several months, but once they finish, they stop training. Their goal was to finish the half marathon, and now that they have passed that goal, that goal is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a specific goal, what is left to push you forward once you’ve achieved it?
This can create a kind of “yo-yo effect” where people continually go from working on a goal to not working on it. Such a cycle makes it difficult to further develop your progress.
Solution: Let go of the need for immediate results.
Last week I worked out in the gym and did my penultimate set of jerks. When I did this repetition, I felt a slight pain in my leg. It wasn’t painful or traumatic, just a sign of fatigue towards the end of the workout. For a minute or two, I thought about doing my last set. Then I reminded myself that I plan to do this for the rest of my life, and I decided to put an end to it.
In a situation like the one described above, a purposeful mindset will tell you to finish your workout and reach your goal. After all, if you set a goal and don’t achieve it, then you feel like a failure.
But with a systemic mentality, I had no problem moving on. Systems thinking is never about reaching a certain number, it is about sticking to the process and not skipping workouts.
Of course, I know that if I never miss a workout, then in the long run I will be lifting a lot. This is why systems are more valuable than goals. Goals are short-term results. Systems are a long-term process. In the end, process always wins.
3. Goals assume that you can control what you cannot control.
You cannot predict the future. (I know, shocking.)
But every time we set a goal for ourselves, we try to achieve it. We try to plan where we will be and when we will get there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even if we don’t know what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.
Solution: create feedback loops.
Every Friday I spend 15 minutes filling out a small spreadsheet with the most important metrics for my business. For example, in one column, I calculate the conversion rate (the percentage of website visitors who subscribe to my free email newsletter every week). I rarely think about this number, but checking this column weekly gives me feedback that tells me if I’m doing the right thing. When that number drops, I realize that I need to drive quality traffic to my site.
Feedback loops are important for building good systems because they allow you to track many different elements without feeling pressured to predict what will happen to everything. Forget about predicting the future and create a system that signals when you need to make adjustments.
Fall in love with systems
None of this means goals are useless. However, I have found that goals are good for planning progress and systems are good for actually making progress.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short term, but in the end, a well-designed system always wins. Having a system is what matters. Commitment to the process is what matters.
Forget setting goals. Focus on it instead. | James Clear